15 People Who Ruined Their Career With Social Media

Obtaining a successful career is something that can take years of your life. But as you’ll see throughout this list, sometimes all it can take is 140 characters (or less) or just one raunchy photo to send it all crashing down.

And while it may be easy to garner a sense of sympathy for these individuals, many of our entries lost their careers through actions that are despicable. Such as Dionne Younce, the newly hired teacher, who used Snapchat to send lewd photos of herself to several students. Though we’d be lying if we said she was the only teacher on our list who will land herself on Santa’s naughty list this Christmas.

Others used social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to send a message. But if your message is hateful or racist, well, you’ll see where that leads you. Similarly, participating in something like the “Unite The Right” – a violent white supremacist rally – also doesn’t do great things for your employment status.

While some of our entries were let go from careers that paid them significant sums of money, we also have a disgusting entry from one McDonald’s worker that’ll definitely make you re-think your next fast food run.

15.Racist Gym Trainer Gets The Boot After Rally Photo Goes Viral

Bobby Ritter was trying hard to hide his face behind a mask when he attended the “Unite The Right” rally back in Charlottesville on August 14th. But one thing this genius didn’t think through was the fact that he had an incredibly identifiable tattoo on his arm that was still in full view.

It wasn’t long before people realized they no longer wanted Ritter to be their CrossFit Coach, a job he was doing at the Lab Gym in St. Louis. Something tells us that if Ritter was asked at future interviews as to why he was let go from his previous job, that he may find himself with plenty of long months of unemployment.

Perhaps that’ll give him time to go to another rally though.

14.High-Level J.Crew Employee Fired After Making Inappropriate Hunger Games Joke

It’s always nerve-wracking when you hear that the company you’re working for may be laying off some employees. This was the case for J.Crew who in 2015 announced they needed to let go of nearly 200 employees. One person – one they may not have been expecting to replace – was their Vice President of Men’s Merchandising.

Rhett decided to post a photo on Instagram along with #maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavor, giving reference to the Hunger Games franchise.

Not shockingly, the company did not care for the comparison between being sent to a fight to the death versus getting laid off.

13.Sassing A Kid’s Spelling Led To Employee Being F-I-R-E-D

Katie Nash admitted that she wouldn’t change a thing about her termination. Which is at least great to hear. You may be a little more upset though if you had a job paying nearly $50,000 and lost it within two weeks.

Which was what happened to Nash, who was fired from her job as the “web experience coordinator” for Frederick County Public Schools. After a student Tweeted at the account (which she ran) “close school tammarow PLEASE” Nash cheekily replied: “But then how would you learn how to spell “tomorrow”? :)”

Smiley face or not, the Tweet was deemed inappropriate enough for her to be relieved of her job.

12.Damian Goddard Decides Hating On LGBTQ Is More Important Than His Anchor Job

Damian Goddard had one of the coolest jobs on our list as a host on Sportsnet. But “had” is a very key word, because Goddard’s job was revoked almost immediately after he Tweeted out his opposition to LGBTQ marriage.

“I completely and whole-heartedly support Todd Reynolds and his support for the traditional and TRUE meaning of marriage,” said Goddard. Reynolds was a former hockey agent who at the time gained heat for opposing Sean Avery who was speaking out in support of same-sex marriage.

That’s right guys, there was an off-the-ice issue and Sean Averywas the good guy!

11.AIDS Joke Ruined This Woman’s Life

Justine Sacco was taking a trip to Africa and decided that she should tweet out “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get aids. Just kidding. I’m white!”

A poor joke, to say the least. One that her employer at IAC definitely didn’t care for and before long her job as the senior director of corporate communications was no more.

Her unemployment led to her writing a book about the shaming she received following the Tweet. When talking about the situation in 2015 with DailyMail, Sacco also credited the situation with hindering her dating life,

“I’m single; so it’s not like I can date because we Google everyone we might date. That’s been taken away from me too.”

10.CBS Lawyer Dissed Victims Of Las Vegas Shooting

One of the worst tragedies to occur in America was the shooting in Las Vegas at a country music festival, leaving 58 innocent people dead and over 500 injured. There was an overwhelming outcry of support for those affected.

But Hayley Geftman-Gold, who had a very public job as a lawyer for CBS, elected instead to Tweet out that she was less sympathetic because “I’m actually not sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun-toters.”

It wasn’t long before the company was reporting her termination!

9.Teacher Fired For Snapchatting Lewd Photos To Football Team

Dionne Younce was 28 years old when she was hired to be a PE teacher at Allen D Nease High School. But it was realistically the last teaching job of her career. Younce was fired after several students claimed she had sent them sexual images; including one student who stated that he and Younce shared racy photos back and forth.

Younce added several of the students on Instagram but used Snapchat as well to entice them. While the students were unnamed, it was also reported that several of the receiving parties were on the football team. That’s not the kind of team-building experience that the team was probably expecting!

8.Cop Threatens A Random 5-Year-Old On Facebook And Gets Fired

An unnamed officer was scrolling through LaNaydra Williams’ Facebook when he stumbled upon a photo of her then, 5-year-old daughter. The officer – who may have been motivated by a recent protest that saw 5 officers get murdered – elected to write: “We’ll see how much her life matters soon. better be careful leaving your info open where she can be found :) hold her close tonight, it’ll be the last time.”

What the what?! The police department did not release the name of the officer, or why he made such a weird threat, but they did confirm that he was let go for the offensive post. Needless to say, LaNaydra Williams was also super freaked out!

7.McDonald’s Worker Fired For Sharing Disgusting Photos

Some of the jobs that are lost on our list are significant and earned the employees hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. That isn’t exactly the case for this guy who decided to show the world just how disgusting McDonald’s restaurants can get.

We’re sorry if that ruined your appetite, but not as sorry if it helps keep you from eating at McDonald’s. This employee was let go as he violated the social media policy enforced on employees. We’re sure that after working there he definitely didn’t need one more reason to be turned off ever returning!

The manager of that location surely got an angry email from corporate though.

6.Flight Attendant Learned The Downside Of Snapping Racist Jokes

As a flight attendant, this woman got the opportunity to fly all around the world on a regular basis. Which means she may prefer certain elements of countries over others.

But she’s going to have to find a way to pay for her future flights herself after she decided to Snapchat why she didn’t mind working on a Friday:

“The upside is I’m going to Nigeria and there’s gonna be bare BBC….All the Nigerians are gonna be there like, ‘Gimme Coca Cola, gimme me beef, why you have no beef left? I want beef.’ And I’m just gonna be there like, ‘Sorry, sir, we ran out of beef.’ All the Nigerians are gonna be there asking for f*cking upgrades because they haven’t got enough leg room because their BBCs are in their way.”

5.Hospital Workers Fired After Dancing With Babies

There aren’t many professions in our society where you need to genuinely care about the work you’re doing more than nursing. Don’t enter that industry if you’re not prepared to give it your all, as the people you’re caring for are literally depending on you in life or death situations.

So it’s perhaps understandable that patients were furious when it became public knowledge that two nurses were 1) flipping off newborn babies and calling them the devil and 2) making the babies “dance” for their amusement.

Both workers were let go after these photos – which were taken from a Snapchat video – went viral. It was also reported that these two women did not have their official nursing license, but were workers at the hospital.

4.Health Instructor Sends Inappropriate Photos To Students

This woman was hired to work as a health instructor at Logan High School, but she ended up being let go from her position after it became clear that she had sent at least 5 students explicit pictures. The evidence was undeniable as some of the photos were saved by a student and seen by members of the administration.

Perhaps she was trying to encourage her students to take a more active interest in their sexual education. But when you consider she sent the images to several people, how was she expecting to get away with this situation? It was reported that she used Snapchat to share the lewd photos.

3.Cole White’s Racist Ways Make Him Unfit For The Restaurant Industry

Cole White probably didn’t put years of training into his job at Top Dog restaurant, but we’re sure it was still a job that was important to him. But that was an opportunity that got pulled away when he decided to spend one of his nights at the Unite The Right March.

Once his restaurant was Tweeted photos of White at the rally, they moved quickly to distance themselves from him as an employee. A Twitter account “Yes, You’re Racist” can be credited with properly identifying Cole in the crowd.

Let’s hope he also didn’t like eating at the restaurant because we’re pretty sure he wasn’t welcomed back under any circumstances.

2.Firefighter In Canada Expresses Horrid Views Over Twitter

Firefighters are definitely considered by many people to be one of the most respected jobs in the world. Which makes it all the more horrifying when you read the views shared on Twitter by two firefighters, Matt Bowman (pictured) and Lawuan Edwards.

“I’d never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried I’d be like HEY! You get your bit*h ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie,” said Bowman. Edwards also chimed in with a post asking if it was okay to beat women, as perhaps it is just “a way to reset the brain.”

Despite both men being offensive, Edwards’ job was later reinstated.

1.Coach Threatens To Burn Down Pizza Shop

There are many different ways for you to show some support for the LGBTQ community. But they probably wouldn’t recommend you say you’re going to burn down a building in support of them.

But when a local pizza place in northern Indiana came out and said they wouldn’t cater to gay weddings, threatening over twitter to burn them to the ground seemed like the best course of action for this woman; who was then a high school coach.

“Who’s going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w me? Agree with #FreedomofReligion bill? That’s a lifestyle they CHOOSE” Ignorant,” said the post.

Dooley was let go shortly after the post became public as arson isn’t exactly the best lesson to be teaching kids!